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Friday, March 31, 2017

My mother makes this Macher Bata withc pungent garlic paste, mustard oil and a generous handful of red chilli powder. The resulting dish should be fiery red in colour and should have an almost paste like texture. My mother cooks Macher Bata with a kind of thin long fish (I have forgotten the name of it), which has very small almost non-noticeable bones and a meaty taste. We eat this as a starter but if you can get along with its heat, I believe you can mop up an entire plate of rice with just the Bata, just the way I did.

Thursday, March 30, 2017

I intend to use up every last bit of the Kolhapuri masala that my sister-in-law had brought for me last year from Mumbai and hence I don’t let go any...and I mean any opportunity to cook some real Kolhapuri delicacies. Well....their Chicken Sukka is just one of them.

You can easily categorise this spicy green mango and mustard paste mix as a quintessential afternoon snack for the Bengalis. There is hardly any Bengali around us who in their childhood have not enjoyed a bowl of tremendously sour or at times sweet and sour green mangoes (who are popularly known as "kanch mithe aam” due to their distinctive taste which is neither too sour nor too sweet) with a good spoonful of kasundi or Bengali mustard paste, hiding from the parents and family.

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Crustless quiche is one of my favourite because it's just pretty darn simple to make. Besides, it stays perfect for a few days, which has made itself my go-to choice for lunchboxes. A make a big batch and then I can just cut it into slices and pack. I love this rich, cheesy and creamy crustless quiche anytime of the day.

Monday, March 27, 2017

It will be an understatement if you call Thandai as only
a drink. It’s much more than that. Thandai is a celebration itself and that too
the most vibrant one. While everyone enjoys splashing colour to their friends
and families, a little bit of chilled thandai just makes that happiness twice
as big and gives the tired, rainbow coloured body a little something to realax.

Saturday, March 25, 2017

My grandmother aka “didu” used to have a large bottle of Kasundi always in her fridge. She paired that with her saag / greens or fries and kasundi was mandatory with cutlets or kabiraji, that “dadu” sometimes brought home. I loved kasundi for its tangy taste. Yummm...!!

Sometimes in the warm afternoons or summer, we made a spicy mix with raw green mangoes, black salt, dried red chilli powder and a lot of kasundi. Sweet and sour mangoes with a little heat from the chillies and sizzle from the kasundi, Kanch Aam Makha is something I still miss. In the end, we ended up with super-sensitive teeth which gave us shivers while cleaning our mouth with water. It was only later that I found you can also cook with kasundi.

Kasundi Murgi is a super tangy and sizzling spicy curry with a thin curry. Superlike!!

Kasundi Murgi / Chicken in a Bengali Mustard based Gravy

Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 kg chicken on bone

½ cup thick yogurt

3 tbsp kasundi

6 garlic cloves – minced

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp red chilli powder

Salt

2 tbsp mustard oil

A handful of fresh coriander leaves

Method:

Heat oil in a kadai and add the chicken pieces to them.

Sprinkle some salt and sear the chicken pieces for 2-3 minutes or until they are nicely golden.

Friday, March 24, 2017

My husband’s Boro Pishi cooked this scrumptious prawn curry with potatoes, eggplants and pyaj koli / spring onions for us when we went to her house this year for lunch. I ate so much of this particular dish that in the end there was no space in my tummy for the chicken, fish, and chutney. Since we don’t get pyaj koli or onion flower stems here in Abidjan, I replace them with the spring onions. The final taste comes somehow close, except the crunch of the onion flower stems, because they are thicker and firmer in texture than the regular spring onions.

Thursday, March 23, 2017

I was hoping that I could make Rogan josh with mutton. The meat shop is just a few blocks away and it sells succulent and fresh mutton pieces. A kind Lebanese old man is the owner who sits on the small square space in front of the shop with a round table and a few other small chairs, which is almost every time occupied by other Lebanese men and he comes inside the shop only when there is a customer. It is the best in Abidjan. So I bought ginger powder and fennel seeds powder to make rogan josh and despite my repeated reminder hubby forgot to buy the mutton the day before which was Saturday. And the shop stays closed on Sundays.

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Not always you need a complicated and lengthy recipe to have an outstanding outcome. Sometimes even for food, you will find more is less. This easy and quick recipe of ghugni comes handy when you need a good snack in little time. Since soaking the yellow peas overnight is not an option at that moment, I tend to soak them in hot water for 15 minutes and then pressure cook until I get the right texture.

With coconut, tamarind pulp, and dates and tamarind chutney, this recipe of ghugni is a complete winner. Do not skip the ground panch foran as that is the main ingredient to make this ghugni real and authentic.

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

This is an attempt to imitate my mother-in-law’s patented spicy aloo posto recipe, which actually is perfect for a person like me, who seeks solace in everything spicy. According to my husband, sister in law and his cousins’ she is the best to make this spicy aloo posto. So this year while she prepared lunch for us, I crept inside the kitchen and noted the process. Asked questions and made happy dance in my mind...because seriously...this is like the ultimatum. I was looking for a spicy version of aloo posto for a long time...and finally I have the secret!! Although the dish did not turn out perfect like her, but never mind, I am a firm believer of the fact that practise makes a man perfect...and someday I will make it close.

Monday, March 20, 2017

There was this one time when I was alone in the home and had a terrible urge to eat eggs. After giving it a lot of thought...I went into the kitchen and boiled 10 eggs. After that, I peeled those eggs, made 4 wedges of each of the eggs and sprinkled salt and black pepper over them. Carefully I placed them on a really large plate and started eating. I ate almost 6 eggs and kept the remaining for making curries. I don’t make such attempts now...no matter how big the temptation is. But I do enjoy eggs in curries. And sorshe dim or eggs in a mustard based curry is one of them.

Friday, March 17, 2017

I find this Punjabi Chicken curry very similar with the Bengali Murgir Jhol, except that you only use ginger in it with an additional pinch of kasuri methi. With ghee, this chicken curry smells and taste absolutely delicious. Perfect for dinner or lunch with rice or roti...almost anything will go with this Punjabi Tariwala chicken curry. But I prefer roti, which I just tear a bit, fold in the shape of a canoe and then dip it into the curry to pick up some of that thin spicy liquid. From there they go straight inside the mouth together, with a bit of a streak of chicken. I have my weekend perfectly sorted. What about you??

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

I love how I can add flavours to the good old lassi. A
simple yogurt based drink which is generally flavoured with green cardamom and
rose water is adaptable to any kind of changes. Here I have turned this little
drink into a perky dessert drink. Cheesecake in a glass. Isn’t it
interesting??? Its cheesecake lassi. Sweet, tangy and slurpy cheesecake lassi.

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

We have a relative who doesn’t eat meat. But she eats fish. So that one time, when she came to our home we thought of making fish tikkas in the starter. As we were in Kolkata we went for boneless bhetki fillets. But frankly, you can use any kind of fish you like for making fish tikkas. As long as the fillets are thick and boneless chunks they will always do the job of making fine tikkas for you.

Friday, March 10, 2017

Milk based sweets had remained a big part of Indian dessert. But there has also remained a huge confusion regarding the discovery of chenna or cottage cheese in India. There had been zero evidence or no mention of the process of cuddling of milk in India before the colonial period. It is often believed that Indians learned to make the cottage cheese from the Portuguese and then used it to make various kinds of sweets. Traditionally and in any ancient scripts there is mention of evaporated milk or kheer, butter, yogurt and cream but there had been no mention of chenna or the cottage cheese. Even according to food historians traditionally people considered milk as pure and the process of cuddling the milk, in which the cheese separates from the whey was considered as a sin. As per the research the sandesh, the very basic form of Bengali sweets historically perhaps used to be made up of khoya or evaporated milk and milk solids.

Much to the trivia Bengalis become very insecure with this invention details as that drags all the credits of making chenna and then, the crown jewel “rasgulla” from their hand and they land into the lap of someone else. So let us not worry us with these gory details and let’s concentrate in our today’s recipe. Chocolate and Bengali sweets emerged as one after Cadbury conducted a very innovative competition among most of the prominent sweetmeat shops of Kolkata some 4-6 years back. Till then Chocolate Sandesh among other many more sweets with a chocolaty twist had remained one of the most loved and popular.

Chocolate Sandesh

Makes 12

Ingredients:

1 and ½ litre of whole full fat cow milk

2 limes

1 tbsp Dutch processed cocoa powder

4 tbsp powdered sugar

Some slivered almonds to garnish

2 tbsp chocolate syrup

Method:

Let the whole milk come to a boil.

Put the flame to the lowest and stir in the lime juice.

As the milk starts to cuddle switch off the flame.

Stir slowly until you see the whey separating from the cheese.

Drain the water and collect this cottage cheese in a cheese cloth.

Run cold water through the cottage cheese / chenna to get rid of the citrus flavour.

Squeeze the cloth really hard to drain as much water possible.

Take the chenna on a flat board. Add the powdered sugar and cocoa powder to it.

Start mixing with your hand and knead with the back of your palm.

Do this for around 3-4 minutes or until the chenna start to take the shape of a lump and you can see your palm greased with the fat from the chenna.

Place a non-stick skillet over the stove top. Switch the flame to the lowest.

Put the kneaded chenna in the skillet and start stirring.

You need to stir fry the chenna for 3-4 minutes or until the chenna starts coming off the skillet.

Place the chenna on a plate and let it cool down.

When the chenna is cold enough (but not completely cold)to handle make little balls out of the chenna dough.

Cool these balls of cottage cheese complete before adding a drizzle of chocolate syrup and then garnishing with slivered almonds.

Thursday, March 9, 2017

Bori or Bengali sun dried dumplings are usually made with urad dal. But occasionally you will come across bori of masoor dal / red lentils, mug dal / yellow lentils and matar dal / split peas lentils. First you have to make the paste from the lentils before seasoning them with salt or other spices. After the seasoning boris are given the shape of small dollops with a string curl in the head, in rows on soft cotton cloths. Earlier, when sheel nora or the Bengali flattened stone mortar pestle was the sole appliance available to the Indian kitchen, women from each and every house used to make their own boris. As a result boris from different houses had different tastes and textures. You can read here for more Bori details.